Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Growing Up ! Sigh

All of us have to face the harsh realities of life atleast sometime. It was in my face a few days ago.
After attending Blogcamp at Chennai, I boarded the train back to Hyderabad. I happened to share the cabin with two other families. There were 3 minors aka half tickets along with their parents. I quickly ran & occupied the window seatso that I would while away my time on the train. But little did I know what was in store for me that evening, a rude awakening to reality if you would. The 3 kids in question were -
1.Niharika - Age 6
2.Aman - Age 4
3.Nitin - Age 2
It was around 9 pm. We had just passed Nellore,it was pitch dark outside. The parents dozed off leaving these little devils awake on the berths. I was on the lower berth & was still sitting and gaping outside the window, with the wind in my face.
I was busy looking for Orion's belt, which happens to be my favourite constellation when I felt someone tugging my shirt. It was Aman, the little tyke had got out of his berth & climbed down. So being the immature brat that I can be, I started of a conversation with him.
We spoke of everything from "Why Tom could never catch Jerry" to "What we should when older kids bully us". It was an interesting chat I must say, I learnt a lot from the kid.
He got bored in a while and requested a story as if I was a jukebox or something. I guess these must have been tales that his mother told him to put him to sleep. I started off with my favourite,The Hare and The Tortoise. Problem was he did not know what a tortoise was.
This was when Niha Didi saved the day, saved the night rather. She explained to him that it was the creature that they had seen at the zoo some days earlier. I was inspired,I went on to add that these creatures are bigger versions of the TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES. Thus I was now to entertain both the siblings.
An hour and 10 fairy tales later, the smallest of the group, Nitin awoke. He was on the opposite lower berth. He was all excited and waved his hand fervently as if to say,"Guys I want to join too". We were more than happy to oblige. We played a few rounds of Toss the milk bottle around.After he got bored of that game, we went onto the more mature game of "Where's the baby... there he is". Then after a while, Nitin's mom awoke and put him to sleep.
So I started off on another round of story telling, this time it was some story that I was making up as I went on. They seemed pretty perplexed. So I thought better of it & started quizzing the kids on life in Primary school. This is when I realised, I hadn't formally introduced myself. So I asked them if they knew my name. In unison they screamed " ADITYA UNCLE ". They had probably heard my name when I was talking to their father. But aren't we missing the big picture here. I was called UNCLE for the first time in my life. It hit me hard, I was growing older. Crow wrinkles were appearing at the corner of my eyes every time i smiled. I was balding as if someone had been using a lawn mower on my scalp. But I somehow managed to convince the two kids that I was still in college & that I also wrote exams like them thus they should call me Anna. Growing up means different things to different people, more responsibilities, more things to do in life, more wishes to fulfil etc. So Ladies and Gents, smell the beans, the coffee that is adulthood is around the corner. Grab it before it gets cold.

18 comments:

Velcro said...

Humorous macha...something that was missing from your blog since a little while...
The previous ones were socially awakening, while this one is for personal enlightenment...
Its so much pain in the er...neck to explain these kids sometimes, I understand your problem man...completely...
P.S:
Do something abt ur bulging belly :P:P:P

--------------P.E.A.C.E-------------

Anonymous said...

sounds like u had a ball with them kids....just proves how all of us still long to not grow up :)

Anonymous said...

Aditya uncleeee

Uncle chocolate.. please uncle.. chocolate.. :p

I myself was called uncle a few times... no wrinkles appeared on my face yet.. wtf! :p

Anonymous said...

congrats adi...on ur new identity...wonder how long i m gonna take to get there....

prateek aka pratsphinx said...

coo.personally i wud consider myself to be a very average kids entertainer.so ill pick up certain things from this blog

Anonymous said...

its amazing how you can take like such a random story and make it soo thought provokingly interesting. I'm sure each one of us mustave had such encounters when we travelled but lil do we think about how the conversations affect our lives. all ur writings totally inspire me dude. ADI,ur the man!

Poornaa Venkatesan said...

Uncle...
Its time you have a kid of ur own...!

NOW WHERE IS "MARRY ME"? Adi needs you dame.

Anonymous said...

hey..good one there..its a been there situation n trust me-i still cringe when i think abt it...well written yo...keep em coming...

Anonymous said...

bacche bacche ..mann ke sacche..akal ke kacche..but sometimes they re luchhe..

Anonymous said...

adeee:):) how i wish i met u 7 yrs bak ;)..ur blog so reflects who ur..i love ur dil se bloggin..
PS: will u baby sit my kids:) pleejj

vindhya said...

i had a wide smile on my face through the blog untill you got to the wrinkles part.! :)
you can never grow old with an attitude like yours.shows when you entertain 3 devils on a train!
these are the times when innosense touches your heart and you know...why kids come next to the almighty....

Anonymous said...

aditya uncle....that sounds gr8 ...u havegrown big (old)!!!!..but the reality is that ppl younger to us help us realize our own resposiblities.....anyways happy growing BIG!!!!!aditya uncle....!

Anonymous said...

for kids if u have a moustache and a beard of sorts and they see u the first time or sth ur uncle be.

personal exp
there were 3 or 4 kids playing in the balcony be i jus went there to see wht they were doing .one kid said "uncle vacharu" then two others whom i know better said"eh uncle kaadhu anna".
i thank god be they call my dad "thatha" they dint do tht to me as yet.!!!!!!
good experience the frst one always is
wrinkles balding and all ...!!!!!

Anonymous said...

aditya uncle,hmm intresting..had a good laugh.
you write well,Mr.Narayanan.

Anonymous said...

enada vennae mama eppadi irkue
its ur mama here greatstory 'UNCLE'

Isha said...

lol .. kids are idiots dont take their words to heart

shruti said...

what happens if u dont catch it before it gets cold?? u never get old? That would be cool :P. Good story. Though i really doubt its authenticity?? You dont have the patience to stand a conversation that stretches two sentences longer than it ought to. How the hell did you tell 10 fairytales??

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